My ancestors who came from the small towns of Irsch, Oberzerf and Serrig in Kreis Saarburg, Rhineland, were peasant farmers or craftsmen. In the mid-19th century they left these villages and immigrated to the woodlands of Calumet County, Wisconsin to search for a better life. By means of this blog, take the opportunity to look into their houses, explore their villages, understand their daily labors and customs, and see how the lure of a new life in America called to them.

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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Village Roads and Fields

Wall-to-wall dwellings in Irsch, Kreis Saarburg, 2004

Before I began my research on the social history of my native villages in the Trier region, I mistakenly pictured the farms of my ancestors as replicas of the farms outside of the village of Sherwood, Wisconsin where I grew up. In Sherwood there were a few shops, a church, school, and the houses of the people who were not farmers. In the outlying countryside, there were farms. Each farm had a house, a barn and some outbuildings. These buildings were surrounded by farm fields and woodlots belonging to each farmer. Farm houses were at a considerable distance from each other with open fields between each dwelling.

It was quite a surprise when I learned that the 19th century villages in the Trier/Saarburg region of Germany, as well as those across the border in Luxembourg and in the French province of Lorraine were nothing like the typical Wisconsin farm with its 40 or 80 or 120 acres surrounding the farm buildings. In Irsch or Zerf or in any small farming village in the Mosel/Saar region, the farm was as much a part of the village as the church or the Gasthaus.

Along the Road

The Bauernhaüser, which I can best describe as “barnhouses," were constructed so that both the family and the livestock could live together under one roof, the family on one side of the building and the livestock on the other. In many of the villages, these barnhouses formed a row on both sides of the road, built wall to wall. This made access to the street possible only through the front of the house. Typically, each barn house would have a garden at the back of the house, which was reached by way of the back door. The garden was fenced, usually with a low wall made of stones or twigs and branches, woven into a secure fence. The land behind a barnhouse might belong to any one of the residents of the village.

The distance between each row of houses was fairly wide. The middle part of that space served as the road, and the free space between the road and the front of each barnhouse was a place for stacks of firewood, tools, equipment used for field work, and the manure pile. This may seem strange until one remembers that a farmer's land was not at the back of his own house. He had to transport his tools as well as his natural fertilizer to fields that were sometimes as much as five miles away.

The space at roadside was also an extension of each farm’s living space, where the housewife sat on a stone or wood bench and cleaned her vegetables or mended clothes. The children not in school played here during the day, dodging the poultry that ran free. In the evening the men and women rested from the day’s work in their multi-purpose yard. The people of the village would often chat with their neighbors until darkness began to fall. This was the signal to go inside and to bed; there was another day of hard work to come at the first light of morning.

According to author Edgar Christoffel, in Zerf the village road was convex, and there were many rough spots. Such a combination caused horses to stumble with some regularity. After dark, the residents of Zerf were also likely to slip and fall as they walked along.

The village's streets were not canalized to handle heavy rainfalls and sewerage. The street and yards turned into mud, and puddles formed from the runoff of the manure piles. When the farmers drove their cattle out into the pastures each morning, cow dung covered the road with a gray-green carpet. In a wet summer, the manure piles did not dry out completely so that there was usually an unpleasant odor in the street.

It is no surprise that most people wore sturdy wooden shoes for work and walking on the road. These wooden work shoes were never worn in the living areas of the barnhouse. In the kitchen or the “Stube” (a combination living room, eating area, and in some regions also the master bedroom) wooden work shoes were exchanged for clogs, thus keeping the dirt of the roads outside.

The Fields

As I have explained, a farmer's fields might be miles from his barnhouse; nor was the possession of adjacent fields common in the 19th century. Areas called "Flur" had descriptive names that clarified the approximate location of each strip of land worked by a farmer in a particular section of open land. Ewald Meyer, in his history of the village of Irsch, says the names of the Fluren were usually related to landforms, local farms, woodlots, etc. That is, a farmer might have his clover planted in a field "by the stone cross" and his potatoes in a strip of land "below the Bodem house." The land registers called Kataster were officially recorded in high German but often mangled by local dialect. (Thus it can be difficult to translate the names of the Fluren and I haven't tried.)

"A man can step out his front door and see if his grain is ripe for the cutting" That would probably be how a German immigrant farmer would describe the convenience of his newly purchased and planted farm land in Wisconsin. His house may have been of logs and as yet poorly furnished. But what a luxury to see one's own fields from the doorstep rather than walking miles to assess when the flax field would be ready for harvest. On the other hand, perhaps his wife would say, "This is a lonely place where I cannot call to my neighbor if I need a little help or want a bit of gossip."

8 comments:

good everning... i am very happy upon seeing the House of Oma tilly....I am searching for a site for my present post.yesterday, we visited the grandma of my husband, the owner of one of the houses here in your post,.

Presently, Oma Telly is the oldest in the barrio of Irsch....She´s 93 yrs.old, next month April 15, is her 94th bday.

Thanks for sharing your post, I want to link your site in my present post.

thanks for the Information. So you are right, my Grandmother told me, that all the Webers in Irsch a related in a very far side. My Grandmothers Father was Johann Weber, born in 1866. So that should be a relative from your 3rd great Grandmother. I have a picture from the wedding of Johann Weber in 1913. So we wish you a good time and sending you regards from good old Germany.

My name is Sharon Gray nee Konter, all my Konter ancestors came from Irsch. I found them in the Familienbuch which I purchased. My Konter line started with philip Konter around 1750. My direct ancestor my Gt gt Grandfather Johan Konter moved to Alsace and his wife Magdalena Anton lived in Rombas Metz in Alsace and from there to Frankfurt when he was ejected for being an anarchist when the French took over Alsace in early 1900s, then Berlin then England. I understand there are still Konter's in Irsch.

Hi SharonI looked at my copy of "Die katholische Pfarrei Sankt Gervasius und Protasius in Irsch an der Saar mit Ockfen und Schoden" by Thomas J. Schmitt. Yes, there were lots of Konters in Irsch. I wondered if you used the same book to locate your 2nd great grandfather, Johan Konter? He certainly sounds like a daring man who experienced a lot of change in his life. He must have been a challenge to trace. Are there any sources you'd like to recommend to others?Kathy

Hello, yes I did use the same book, I posted on the Irsch website forum and someone kindly told me where to get a copy. I wrote to the Town Hall in Rombas Metz in Alsace and they sent me as many details as they could and I found my gt grandfather and gt grand mother and then my grandfather from there. Luckily I could trace some of my grandfathers movements from my father who has now passed on, luckily my father kept all his papers, so I had a last address in Berlin, and also a step grandmother in East Berlin who had more documents like a death certificate for my grandfather. I have however failed to find my grandmother Maria Zimmer who was married to my grandfather Peter Konter i believe in Frankfurt sometime around 1920 and died between then and 1943 when my grandfather married again in Berlin. She seems to be untraceable as is the first marriage. I do remember my father trying to obtain a passport (German) and having great trouble proving who he was as they said a lot of papers/ documents from Frankfurt had been lost in a fire. One day I may be able to trace her. Thankyou for your interest. I always remember my father who died in 1989 saying he had only his stepmother left in Germany - he knew nothing of the Irsch Konter's and I am sure he would have loved the thought of those Konter's still being there in Irsch.

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About Me

I am Kathy Gosz, a retired library director, writing a history about my Rhineland ancestors. I want it to be filled with the details of their daily lives in Germany and later in Wisconsin. I am drawing from genealogical research, from notes taken at workshops, from historical plaques and markers, from conversations, e-mails, and the internet, but especially from local histories written in German which have been accumulated on several trips to Germany. While I love historical research, I do not love organizing my materials. This blog offers one way to keep track of the most pertinent information and to make it useful to other people as well. These posts are copyrighted by the author.

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